Jack the runaway; or, On the road with a circus

“A dollar, Jack?” and Professor Simonedes Klopper, who had retired from the position of mathematical instructor in a large college, to devote his declining years to study, looke...

Jack knew there was little fear of detection, for, on several other occasions, when he had been denied the privilege of going out on an evening, he had climbed from the window o...

The show was a fairly good one, and Jack and the other boys, as well as older persons in the audience, enjoyed the various numbers, from the singing and dancing, to a one-act sk...

“Well, if this ain’t the meanest thing he’s done to me yet!” exclaimed Jack, as the door closed on the retreating form of his crusty guardian. “This is the limit! The boys expec...

“Hey, Jack, where were you Saturday?” asked Tom Berwick, as our hero came into the school yard Monday morning. “We had a dandy game,” he went on. “Your catching glove is nifty!”

Jack closed the door of his apartment and sat down in a chair by the bed. His mind was in a whirl. He wondered if the professor would carry out his threat, and call an officer.

With the one thought firm in his mind, to get safely away from the house, Jack gave little heed which way he went. Naturally he headed away from the village, for he knew, late a...

Jack fancied that the conductor, when he took up his ticket, looked suspiciously at him, but probably this was only the result of his imagination. At any rate, the runaway was g...

“Well, things are certainly happening to me,” mused Jack, as he tried to find the softest board in the floor of the freight car, whereon to sit. He finally decided that his dres...

Holding fast to the edge of the door, to steady himself against the swaying of the car, which was now rumbling along over an uneven piece of track, Jack peered ahead to see if t...

Ferd drove the wagon up to one of the buildings where a low, broad platform opened into a room with a concrete floor, about which stood many milk cans. In one corner was a big t...

“Say, ain’t this bully!” exclaimed Ferd, as the procession which begins each circus performance wound slowly around the arena. “It’s immense! I wouldn’t ’a’ missed it fer a lot....

“Say,” remarked Ike Landon, when Jack had made his way through the little ring of performers, “you did better than I thought you would. The old man--I mean the boss--is mighty h...

Jack was more nervous than he had thought he would be when he got ready for his first performance that evening. Under Mr. Kyle’s direction he painted his face, and then he donne...

The circus performance was almost over. They were getting ready for the chariot and other races which would bring the program to an end. Jack went to the tent where he had made-...

Breakfast was a much better meal than Jack had expected, from knowing the hurried manner in which it must have had to be prepared and under what adverse circumstances. But he wa...

That afternoon’s performance was well attended. Jack did the same thing he had done on the previous day and was moderately well applauded. As usual, however, Sam Kyle created th...

“That’s the stuff!” cried Mr. Paine, running up to where Jack was getting out of the collapsed airship. This was the first the boy knew that the manager had been watching him. B...

“Not exactly,” replied Jack. “I just thought I’d get ready, though,” for, though a number of the circus people knew something of his story, he did not think it wise to tell why...

For several weeks after this the circus traveled about from city to city, sometimes taking in large towns, and gradually working through the middle west, spending considerable t...

When the afternoon performance came to an end, Mr. Paine sent for Jack. He closely questioned the boy about the cut umbrella. Jack could throw no light on when it had been done.

Once more the parade started, and it completed the circuit without further accident. To the delight of every one, the rain ceased, and the sun came out to dry off dripping tents...

But Ike was equal to the emergency. With one motion, he had leaped to the foot of the swaying pole, which held up a great weight of wet canvas, and he had grabbed the rope which...

Behind the big brute came a score of the animal men, armed with clubs, pitchforks, iron bars and elephant hooks. But Bill Henyon was not among them. The elephant trainer--the ma...

When Jack regained his senses he found himself in a soft bed, and, as his eyes roved about they did not encounter the familiar hangings of the circus sleeping-car. Instead, they...